John Akre is an animator who live in Minneapolis, MN. He tries to figure out collaborative ways to use stop motion animation, teaches animation at Hamline University and FilmNorth, and also organizes MinnAnimate.
Hello, I’m Kai Dranchak! I’m a recent grad at Ringling College of Art and Design. My main passion lays in storyboarding, but I also love visual development. I love getting a reaction out of and leaving a positive impact on an audience.
Joseph Dutra graduated at Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2019, majoring in Filmmaking. But he also loves the art of animation and hopes to make a career of it, along with film.
Joel Erkkinen is a self-taught animator and film maker. His work is meant to both elicit laughter and also make you ponder said laughter. He is best known for his award winning viral film “The World’s First Twurkey.” His professional career spans 16 years. He currently work as a Creative Director at motion504 in Minneapolis.
Scott Ferril spent the last 50 years deciding what to do for a living. He’s chosen animation.
Garden Greene is an independent writer/animator from St Paul interested in pursuing deeply personal stories with universal themes.
Marla Goodman is an artist and amateur Thereminist in Bozeman, Montana whose paintings frequently touch on nostalgia, despair and humor. This, her first stop motion animation, reflects her interests in printed ephemera, perfectionism and longing.
Robert Jersak is an independent mixed-media animator living in Minnesota and teaching at Century College.
Amabelle Johnson is a recent graduate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a BFA in 2D Animation and minor as a Teaching Artist. Although she came from an extensive illustration background, she loves working with character animation, visual development, and world building.
Alex Kern. Born in 1999 in Blaine Minnesota. One animation course taken at Hamline University. First stop motion animation video.
Andrea Lindner is an undergraduate student at Hamline University majoring in Professional Writing & Rhetoric and Digital Media Arts, and is from Oakdale, Minnesota. She takes inspiration from traditional hand-drawn animation and the cartoons she watched growing up.
Wayne Nelsen has currently made 110 animations.
Beth Peloff is a video maker and teacher who works in both animation and documentary. Her films have played at film festivals throughout the U.S. She is a 2017 recipient of the Jerome Foundation Film and Video Grant.
Sam Selvaggio and Kyle Christopherson were both semi-working actors in their youth. They have since settled into a comfortable domestic lives, but manage to keep their artistic sides alive by writing, producing, and animating short films…mostly with a fart theme.
Jordan Schulz is a 3D Character Animator/Generalist, graduating from UW-Stout in March 2020 with a B.F.A. in Entertainment Design: Animation. He also loves doing environmental concept art.
Colin Stanhill is a self-taught animator working in Minneapolis. They draw all their films by hand on paper. According to Malcolm Turner, of the Melbourne International Animation Festival, they are “quite a lucid sort of fellow.”
Kate Toriseva is a digital artist and painter located in Minnesota, but generally not an animator. She decided to take a class at her university to try and broaden her skills and The Grand Story was the result. She is hoping to use animation in her artwork much more, and hopefully find herself back at MinnAnimate sometime soon!
Wong Xiong is 18 years old and in college at Hamline University. He is Hmong and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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